England Star James Anderson Predicts Winner Of World Cup 2019
Dec 14, 2018 at 1:54 PM
The next edition of the 50-over World Cup is just a few months away. England will host the much-anticipated tournament which will get underway next summer.
England will take on South Africa in the opener on May 30, 2019, at The Oval in London. The tournament will last for 45 days with 48 matches to be played. India will start their campaign against the Proteas on June 5. The format for the 2019 edition will see 10 best teams in the world going head-to-head in a round-robin format. The tournament will culminate with the fifth final at the iconic Lord’s Cricket Ground on July 14.
And with the tournament edging closer with each passing day, cricketers and fans across the globe have started predicting about the fortunes of the team in the competition. England pacer James Anderson has also revealed his pick for the tournament. And the veteran pacer has heavily tipped his home side to win the competition at home.
Anderson went on to say that no team is even close to matching England in ODIs and the home conditions will further bolster the Eoin Morgan-led side’s chances.
“There’s no-one really anywhere near [England] in the one-day form, probably India is the closest,” Anderson told Tailenders podcast.
“But I think in our conditions I don’t think anyone is going to come near so I think we’ve really got to screw up if we don’t win the World Cup.”
Well, England are definitely one of the favourites for next year’s World Cup. They are currently the top-ranked ODI side in the world and have looked like the most destructive team in recent years. They have won their last nine series of two matches or more and have won 51 of 77 matches since the 2015 World Cup.
England’s only one-day series loss since January 2017 was to Scotland in a one-off match last summer. They have won their most recent series against eight of the nine teams they will face in next year’s World Cup, with the only exception Afghanistan who they have not played.
“I don’t want to put too much pressure on the lads, but the way that England play, the talent we’ve got, the players we’ve got and the way we play as a team I just think we’ve got all bases covered,” said Anderson.
England, meanwhile, have never won a 50-over World Cup. In the last edition they exited the competition early after a humiliating defeat to Bangladesh.